


#LuciferSaved

by GlitterSkullFairy



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death but its not the end, Deckerstar ALWAYS, F/M, Lucifer Bingo 2019, Mermaid Painting, Romantic Fluff, he is risen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-21 13:44:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18703507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlitterSkullFairy/pseuds/GlitterSkullFairy
Summary: Chloe finds out why Lucifer has kept that hideous painting all these years.  Once she gets to Heaven, she puts it to good use.Because the thought of him losing her forever is just too much.





	#LuciferSaved

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lucifans Everywhere](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lucifans+Everywhere).



> 4 days to go and counting!  
> This fic is dedicated to everyone who raised their voice to make that happen. You are awesome. Thank you so much.
> 
> Bonus points for spotting all the recycled- I mean, um, referenced!- Deckerstar dialogue.
> 
> This is my fifth entry for Lucifer Bingo 2019, the prompt square was Clown and Mermaid Painting.
> 
> Also, big thank you to my super-beta, the Fluffy Dragon who always points out my errors with accuracy and tact and makes me do it better.

“Do we have to take it with us?” Chloe moaned.

“Of course we do,” he replied, carefully wrapping the mermaid painting and laying it in a wooden box. “I told you, it-”

“It was part of some deal. I get it.”

“A very important deal. And it’s important that I keep my promise to appreciate it every day.”

“How can you appreciate that monstrosity?”

“Because in spite of its hideousness, it has come to mean something.”

“Yes, but do _I_ have to look at it every day? Can’t you just hang it the spare room or something and go and look at it before work?”

“That’s not what one does with real art, Lieutenant.”

In all this time, she had never figured out how not to roll her eyes when he got like this. He could still be infuriatingly nonsensical. “Lucifer, this new house is meant to be a new start, for both of us.”

He put his hands on her shoulders and spoke to her seriously. “I can’t leave my past behind, my love, there’s too much of it. Nor do I want to. All of it has brought us to where we are today. Here, with you. And though I can’t say I’d happily do it _all_ again, I’ve come to accept the journey. The painting stays with us, I’m afraid. It’s bound to who I’ve become.”

She smiled and kissed him. “I am so proud of who you are, Lucifer, and I wouldn’t change a thing. So we hang it in the new bedroom?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“But not directly over the bed. I don’t want her watching us while we sleep.”

***

Chloe breathed. It hurt. But that was fine. She didn’t want the pain to stop just yet. Lucifer stroked the deep lines on her face. He’d done everything he could, but he couldn’t stop time, and hers was running out. “Good morning, beautiful.”

“I don’t know how you can call this wrinkled old face beautiful.”

“Let’s not start that again. You know I don’t lie. You’re beautiful to me.” 

He still looked almost exactly the same. All the years he’s spent with her, vulnerable, and all he had to show for it was a thin streak of grey on one temple and a few tiny lines at the corners of his eyes. If anything, it made him look even more handsome than ever. She missed sharing a bed with him, but she was hooked up to machines and monitors. He’d paid for it all to be installed at home, with round the clock nursing and a doctor on standby, and he never left her side. 

She twitched her fingers weakly, and he was there, gently cradling her hand. Just like always. Always protecting her, always there to catch her, support her; always infuriating her with his inappropriate humour, rushing into things without a plan, taking on whatever challenges life brought. As she’d got older, she’d tried to get him involved in other interests, passions that he could continue after she’d gone, friends who would be there to support him. But none of them ever caught on, not if it meant he had to leave her company. 

Trixie was staying with them, her wife and grown offspring in an apartment nearby, because they all knew it was nearly the end. Chloe had begged and bargained with Amenadiel- they must have had the conversation at least once a year over the last thirty. He had assured her over and over again that if there was anything that could be done, he would be doing it, but their Father was not the kind of Supreme Being to change His mind. The banishment was permanent and without ambiguity.

“Lucifer, I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave you.”

“Don’t worry. It’s boring up there, but I’m sure you’ll be perfectly content.”

“And what about you?”

“Well, I survived getting cast into Hell. Can it be much worse than that?” _Yes,_ his heart told him. _It was going to be much worse._ He stroked her fingers, pushing the thought away. He wasn’t there yet, and he was determined to enjoy it to the last moment. His eyes flicked up to the painting on the wall.

“Still looking at that awful thing? I think it might just be the most hideous picture I’ve ever seen.”

“Consider yourself lucky you didn’t see the rest of the collection. This was the least offensive one of the lot, that’s why I chose it.”

“You chose that?”

“I did. The rest were atrocious.”

“Why?”

He looked at her, taking in everything. “For you. To get the ingredients for the antidote when you were poisoned. I look at that painting every day, because that was the deal I made to save your life. And every day we’ve had since then, we have because I made that deal. So I treasure it, just as I’ve treasured every extra moment that it’s given me with you.”

Chloe could feel her eyes leaking. “You truly are the more remarkable person I’ve ever met.”

“Of course I am.” Time had done nothing to diminish his vanity. But these days, she knew it was entirely justified.

***

“Is Lucifer going to be all right?” she asked Rae-Rae. 

“Amenadiel is with him. He’s giving him time to grieve. Literally. Trixie won’t have to see the worst of it.”

She nodded. That was something, at least. Trixie would be there for him, but if he saw her, he’d try to bottle it up, and that wasn’t what he needed. “Why aren’t I crying?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just lost Lucifer. I should be heartbroken. I should be wailing and kicking and falling apart, but I’m not.”

“This is Heaven. That stuff doesn’t happen here.”

“Well, it should.”

“Everybody leaves behind people they care about, Chloe.”

“Yes, but at least they have the hope seeing them again. I…” She should be angry at that. But she wasn’t.

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but you need to let him go. We’ll look after him. I’ll take Ella to visit, they can talk about old times, and she can still hug better than anyone. You’re in Heaven. You can have whatever you want here, you just have to think of it.”

“Except Lucifer.”

“Think of something else. Your favourite place, somewhere that feels like home.”

The silvery walls shifted into diaphanous black curtains, the orange and pink of a sunrise leaking through from behind them. She was sitting on a large bed with black sheets, and on the stone wall in front of her was a hideous painting.

“Ugh. That's ugly.”

“Yes, it is. But it's also beautiful.” She sighed. “This is no good. I have to do something. Can I talk to your Dad?”

“He doesn't really do appointments.”

“Then I guess I'll just have to get his attention some other way.”

 

She practised in her own chamber. You just had to think of the thing you wanted and it would come into being. But it took a little effort. She made painting after painting appear, repeating until the process was as easy as signing her name, and then she did some more until it was as easy as blinking. It might have been hours or days, but without a sun it was hard to tell. Time was fairly meaningless here. 

Dan arrived, to find her surrounded by a few dozen copies of the thing. He looked just the same as he had many years ago, before he’d been separated from Charlotte. “Woah, Chlo, did I just walk through the door to Hell?”

She wanted the comment to hurt, she wanted to want to scream at his insensitivity, but there was nothing there. She did however, manage a mild irritation that she couldn’t get angry. It helped. “If only. At least he could visit me there.”

Dan didn’t have to ask who “he” was. He just put his arms around her. The benefit of having shared a life for as long as they did was that they didn’t need some grand catching up moment. They just fell straight back into their old habits. “So what’s all this? Because I can’t possibly think of a single reason why anyone would want to look at more than one of those.”

“Because, apparently it was part of a deal that saved my life.”

Dan laughed. “I remember it well. Getting punched in the face that hard leaves an impression. That guy was a total ass-hat.”

“You were there? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it was him, being him, and it kinda felt like it was more his story to tell.”

She nodded, and popped another painting into existence. “Remember when Trixie was little, and she went through that phase where if she didn’t get what she wanted, she would just keep saying the same thing over and over again?”

“Vividly. If I remember right, we both caved once or twice, which probably didn’t help.”

“Exactly. So I plan to be that annoying. I’m going to start spamming these things everywhere I go, until Someone starts listening.”

He knew her well enough that he could hear the capital letter. “You need any help?” He focussed hard and another painting materialised in front of her.

“Really?”

“Of course.”

 

It became a game. They would wait among shimmering silver spires, or in the gardens, or at the beach, and as soon as an angel appeared, they would snap out an ugly painting in front of them. If they timed it right, the angel would often walk or fly straight into it. Not that it would hurt them, but sooner or later it might start to get irritating. 

It must have been doing something, because Gabriel came to have words. They were in a open field at the time, full of long grass and wild flowers. Heaven may have once been just a city, but it had expanded as its residents increased in number. They saw him approach from some distance away, and took turns apparating the ugly mermaid in front of him every few steps. He had enough of that and flew to their side in an instant. The paintings hemmed them all about within moments. “I have come to request that you desist with this amusement,” he said solemnly.

“Why?” Chloe challenged. “Is there some rule I’m breaking?”

“Heaven is supposed to be a place of beauty. These things are monstrous.”

“No. They’re not. Not to me.”

“But why so many of them? What are you trying to achieve?”

“Do you know who I am?”

“Of course.”

“Then it shouldn’t take much to figure out what I want.”

“It’s just not possible.”

This time, the painting appeared less than an inch in front of his face.

 

She was catching up with her parents when she managed to get an angel mid-flight. Penelope laughed as he flapped himself backwards to get away from it; it was truly undignified. Chloe gave a rather devilish smirk, and then had to explain what was going on. John had already heard about Lucifer (at great length) from Penny. She hadn’t believed until she ended up here and started asking awkward questions. So when Chloe explained the plan, they wanted in on it too.

Linda was delighted by the idea. She started telling everyone she knew about it, and made quite a persuasive argument about why the Devil deserved to be redeemed. The painting started appearing more frequently. 

Father Frank came and saw Chloe as soon as he’d heard about it, and took a copy of the painting to show to all his old parishioners. They shared it with their families, who took it to their congregations in turn and it kept spreading. It spread back through the generations, and people who had met Lucifer in previous eras joined the cause. And of course, once Shakespeare joined the club and started spreading the message in iambic pentameter, the angels were struggling to get anywhere without seeing that white face and her little seahorse.

Chloe was summoned. She had spent a long time preparing her case, and Charlotte had been tutoring her as well. The former lawyer had grilled her mercilessly, making sure that she left no room for error. She was as ready as she could be.

***

She managed not to punch The Creator Of The Universe in the face, but it was a close thing. 

***

Lucifer lay quietly on his bed with one small, dim light directed at the ugly painting on the wall. He had gone beyond raging and throwing things, beyond trying to lose himself in drugs and fights he always won. None of it helped. Trixie or one of her family came around twice a week to check on him and make sure was… what? Still alive? Fairly inevitable. Maze had kept her blades hidden, and without them there was no other earthly way he could end his life. He knew because he’d looked. Thoroughly. The research had given him something to hold onto for about eight months, but in the end he knew it was hopeless. So these days he just lay there in the dark, thinking of better times, wishing his body could just waste away. Wishing he still had Azrael’s sword. He didn't bother to dress, much less groom himself, and lived off a diet of amber spirits.

When Amenadiel showed up he couldn’t even muster up the will to complain. The eldest angel just stood there with that self-satisfied expression, and Lucifer didn’t even care.

“I’ve come to take you back.”

The Devil sighed half-heartedly. “I suppose I might as well. It’s not like things could get any worse, even in Hell.”

“No Luci,” his face split into a grin. “Not there.”

“Then where?”

“She’s a true miracle, in more ways than one. She made herself so notorious that she got Father to change His mind. You can home, Brother.”

“Home?” He couldn’t quite process the idea. It was vastly opposed to the loss he’d come to accept as his reality.

“To the Silver City. To Chloe.”

The name sank in where everything else was a blur. He sprang to his feet and ran to the bathroom. “I need a shower and a suit!”

***

She was waiting for him at the gates. Her hair was long and golden, her skin as smooth as the first day they met. He felt life return to every corner of his being as he got closer, an urge to sing and dance and make endless love- feelings he thought he’s never feel again. She threw her arms around him as soon as he crossed into the City. Her lips peppered his neck and face with kisses, and he had to grab her head in both hands to keep her still enough so he could kiss her back, long and deep. He almost couldn’t believe it. “This is real, isn’t it?” he asked, just as he’d asked her so long ago.

“Yes! Oh Lucifer, yes, it’s real. It always was. It always will be. It seems I will literally take on _anyone_ who tries to keep you away from me.” She looked at him, drinking in his dark eyes as their foreheads pressed together. “How long has it been?”

“Two years.” He smirked. “Well, more or less. Six hundred and sixty six days, would you believe? I think Dad still has a sick sense of humour.”

Chloe laughed and shook her head. “I don’t care. I’ve got my partner back. Nothing else matters.”

Amenadiel cleared his throat. “I’m going to let you two get reacquainted. But I suggest you get a room because you’re still famous, even though it may be in a different way. It might get crowded around here once word gets out that you’re back. Have fun, Brother.” And away he flew.

Chloe pointed over Lucifer’s shoulder at a small cabin he hadn’t noticed on the way in. It was made of wood and had roses growing around the door. She took his hand and led him into it. Inside there was a large bed, with black sheets and a tree-like chandelier that glowed with an amber hue. He sat on the bed and looked at her, happy but perplexed. “How did you do it? How did you change His mind?”

“I did this,” she clicked her fingers and the painting appeared on the wall. “Many, many times. And so did a lot of your friends. You have a lot more friends up here than you know.”

“I do?”

“Yes. You made quite an impression on a lot of people. They all wanted to help. And here you are.”

She sat in his lap and their mouths met once more, full of tender longing. Her fingers curled into his hair, her Heavenly body leaning into his, needing a closeness that was related to human passion but had a strangely different quality to it. 

“You do realise this is going to be frightfully boring now, though, don’t you?” he smirked, his arms snaking around her waist and pulling her tight against him.

“What, you mean you aren’t planning any more revolutions?” she teased. “I think we can come up with a few ways to pass eternity.”

“So long as a good proportion of them involve the two us together being naked.”

“I think I can work with that.” She kissed him again, her hands sliding under his waistcoat, seeking skin that was still denied to her. She let one creep under his open collar instead. “It feels different, though,” she admitted.

“That’s understandable, you’re not made of flesh anymore. You know this might be fun after all. I’ll have to find completely new ways of bringing you into a state of ecstasy.” He knew he could do it, too. He was disturbingly familiar with how souls worked; it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how to draw out pleasure instead of pain. And it was a lesson that they could learn together. 

He traced a finger down her neck, finding a familiar chain and pendant. She smiled, “I know it’s not the real one, but I needed it. And this place gives you what you most desire.”

He hadn’t been here since before the first human died, but it made sense. It was the inverse of Hell, which sought out and guilt and fear, and made it real. “Is that how you did the thing with the painting?”

Her eyes flicked around the room. “And the rest of it.”

“This is all you?”

“I’ve developed quite the talent for making what I want appear. Including you.”

“You are a veritable magician, my love.”

“So tell me, Lucifer Morningstar, is there anything that you would like me to magic up for you? What do you truly desire?” she mocked her terrible approximation of his accent.

“Nothing. I have everything I need right here.” He brushed his lips softly over her ear. “Although I wouldn’t say no to a strap on and a bottle of lube, either.”

She laughed loudly, revelling in his Luciferness. He saw the joy ignite in her soul, and caught it, observed it with a celestial eye and then brightened it with his own power. She felt the surge and her laugh turned into a stunned gasp. He lifted her hand and pressed it palm to palm, letting his will entwine with her soul, spilling a portion of his incandescence into her. Her eyes went wide, filled with a bright light. She could feel him- not just his physical presence, but his spirit, everything that made him _him._ It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever felt, and the most intimate.

He held it there, watching her bosom rise and fall with breaths it didn’t really need, until she let go and melted against him. He laid her gently back on the bed and spooned her, treasuring the closeness.

“Thank you,” he whispered into her hair. “For saving me.”

“Hhmmm,” she purred. “Now that’s what I call a _moment.”_

***

Chloe kept one copy of the painting, hanging over their bed, and for the rest of eternity they both treated it like the work of a real artist.

**Author's Note:**

> And BINGO! that's five in a row. ;)


End file.
